Co-creating Health

In brief

Around 18 million people in the UK live with a long term condition such as diabetes, depression, heart disease or arthritis, and this number is expected to double by 2030.

Managing long term conditions, which can be controlled by medication or other therapy but not cured, accounts for almost 70% of the NHS hospital and primary care budget. These costs are set to rocket due to an ageing population and rising levels of obesity and inactivity.

We know that people with a long term condition can improve their health and have a better quality of life by taking a more active role in their own care. But to do this, people need self management skills and access to information about their condition. They also need skilled support and motivation from their clinicians, and healthcare systems that operate very differently from those we have today.

About Co-creating Health

The Health Foundation invested over £5million in a large-scale demonstration programme called Co-creating Health. This programme aimed to embed self management support within mainstream health services across the UK and equip individuals and clinicians to work in partnership to achieve better outcomes.We believe this will lead to measurable improvements in the quality of life of people with long term conditions while also making better use of valuable NHS resources.

The Co-creating Health programme focused on developing the skills and attitudes of both people with long term conditions and their clinicians, while also ensuring systems and services are designed to support and facilitate self management.

When did it start?

Co-creating Health began in 2007, when eight demonstration sites were chosen to deliver the three training and information strands of the programme. Each site focused on one of four clinical areas: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression, diabetes and musculoskeletal pain. All demonstration projects spanned primary and secondary care and involved local teams of service users, clinicians and managers.

Comments

Juliet Hall11 October 2011

I'd be really interested in some background literature in co-creation. Have read the piece by John Bessant and Lynne Maher - what is the literature that the Helath Foundation programme is based on?

Dorothy Flatman13 October 2011

Hi Juliet - thanks for your comment. We commissioned an evidence review on Self Management Support which will give you the background you are looking for. You will find it here:
http://www.health.org.uk/publications/evidence-helping-people-help-themselves

Lynne Barr23 February 2012

The work across these sites looks really interesting. However, they remain condition/symptom specific and I am involved in writing a strategic framework that really needs to scale up self management approaches so that we can start to address the cultural issues and expectations of professionals and people with LTCs alike.
Can you suggest where might be at a similar stage or if you are involved in the scaling up of this approach.

Dorothy Flatman (Programme Manager)15 March 2012

Dear Lynne

Thank you for your message and interest in the CCH programme. All of the sites are currently working to embed self management support and spread to other conditions. I suggest that you speak to one of our Self Management Support Fellows so please send me an email and I can put you in touch. We are currently uploading their details onto our Self Management Support Resource centre which you may find helpful for information: www.health.org.uk/sms

Jackman15 March 2012

I found this site while looking for funding streams and financial backing to support a health care project that would give better access to care and support, I wonder if this would be something relevant to this site or if anyone is able to point me in the right direction. Many thanks.

Lynne Barr19 March 2012

Tthank you , my email address is below

Dawn Gibson08 June 2012

Dorothy, I work for an innovation consultancy called Inzenka, we work with FTSE 100 clients several of whom have an interest in healthcare, wellness, telecare and telehealth. I would be interested to know if you have trialled any form of telecare/health as an enabler to self-care, if so maybe you could connect me to the detail in the evaluation report. Also whether you have looked at / or know whether the NHS is open to Public/private partnerships to enable self-care or a national roll-out of it in the future. If necessary please refer me to the relevant person to answer the later question.
Thanks

Vivienne Little, Programme Officer13 June 2012

Some of the projects we have funded have used telehealth; for example in our Shine 2011 awards, one used Skype for regular appointments and other projects used text messaging to monitor and encourage better self care. Further details are on the Programmes section of the website.

We will reply separately to the second question.

Owen Curtis06 February 2013

I am an educator in Australia working with allied health team members and I have been particularly impressed with the videos your organisation has developed around Co-creating health.

I have linked a number of these to your site, and unfortunately, these videos have been moved and are now no longer linked.

Could you help me to identify where in your site your videos
:-
CoCreating Health
Engaging Service Uers
Delivering health improvement programs... are now sited so that I can renew the link to them for our health professionals.

You should also take a look at our Self Management Support online resource centre which has a wealth of resources.

http://selfmanagementsupport.health.org.uk/

Thanks Gill

Sabine Wildevuur06 March 2013

I am doing research in the field of person centered care and was wondering about the impact and outcomes of your study on cocreating healthcare.

Gill Fulford, Programme Officer21 March 2013

Dear Sabine

Thanks for your comment. The evaluation from Phase 1 of Co-creating Health is available on the publications pages of our website - see link below. The evaluation from Phase 2 will be available on our website this summer.

I note with interest the justification for the co-creating health initiative is justified under a mixture of benefits to patient centred care empowerment and choice, improved clinical outcomes, and associated socio-economic costs.

Most of the impacts you list above relate to the clinical / economic aspect of the programme. Could you provide us with details of how it has helped patients to manage the socio-emotional aspects of chronic illness to their benefit?

Gill Clayton, Programme Manager27 September 2013

Dear Silus

I thought you may be interested in watching a couple of the videos on our website which share patient experiences of taking part in the self management programme. Please see links as below:

Also available are evaluation reports from both phases of the Co-creating Health programme which can be found on the publications section of our website. You may also be interested in visiting our self management support resource centre which has a section on enabling patients. Please visit: http://selfmanagementsupport.health.org.uk/